Pseudonarcissus

Pseudeonarcissus, 2018

The work attempts to invoke the following pairing of ideas: the distinction yet simultaneous conversation between content and process. Therefore, there are two ways in which the viewer can enter this body of work. Presented as ten ink-jet prints (each 47” x 60” or vice versa), the work asserts the validity of photography as a fine-art medium and questions the perceived notion of audience among the masses.

By photographing the literal and physical phenomenon of audiences leaving concerts, games, and stages of entertainment, the content of the work illuminates the desire for the modern individual to live his or her life with an audience (and its hereafter detrimental effect). The series was created with the following in mind, “With the advent of social media, how often do we flock to stages of entertainment in the hope that we might, one day, wish to watch a rewind of our lives in satisfaction through the technology of pictures”? The work is about how photography has subsequently aided in the idea of fame as being the ultimate totem of successful adult life.

The other way in which to enter the work is through the literal process of making a photographic print. All of the layers of the printing process are included within the final image; transparency is an important facet throughout this body of work. The fingerprints and mechanical marks made from the heaviness of the ink onto the vellum begins a conversation with the viewer about, one, the artist’s hand as blatantly a part of the work as the content of the film itself and, two, the importance of methodology in producing a photographic print.

The result is a series of images that are viewed with the whole body. The work is painterly, forensic, cold and experimental.

The work is named after the daffodil (Latin name pseudonarcissus), the flower that stares at its own reflection in the water.